It isn't a state secret they were sharing space with Central News, that much is given. I think by that point the bulk of if not all Central's productions had moved to Nottingham, and its my belief Gas Street was never intended for that much besides the local news and the continuity/playout - adding CITV onto it was effectively an afterthought.
It isn't a state secret they were sharing space with Central News, that much is given. I think by that point the bulk of if not all Central's productions had moved to Nottingham, and its my belief Gas Street was never intended for that much besides the local news and the continuity/playout - adding CITV onto it was effectively an afterthought.
I'm not so sure. Lenton Lane was never that busy and was in decline by the late 90s, accommodating it there surely wouldn't have been so difficult?
IIRC the Childrens operation had always been in Birmingham, even during the out-of-vision 90s era. Seems weird that a newly opened small studio would immediately be used for something it had not been intended to be used for.
It isn't a state secret they were sharing space with Central News, that much is given. I think by that point the bulk of if not all Central's productions had moved to Nottingham, and its my belief Gas Street was never intended for that much besides the local news and the continuity/playout - adding CITV onto it was effectively an afterthought.
Gas Street had 2 studios, 1 true studio which was large enough for the CNW set from 1997, the other was used as a CITV continuity studio and weather studio (was on the first floor ISTR). It was an empty space until 2007, with CITV 'set' items still stored in there until the building was sold and refurbished
While they were most likely skipped long ago, you'd be surprised how long some of this sort of stuff can hang around for. The walls of TV Centre still had plenty of ancient publicity photos by the time the building closed, and there were some giant fibreglass BBC Three blobs lurking in a storeroom in 2013. (I'm not sure if they made it to the auction or if someone managed to sneak them out as a souvenir)
Oh there are definitely some BBC Three blobs lurking around NBH.
It isn't a state secret they were sharing space with Central News, that much is given. I think by that point the bulk of if not all Central's productions had moved to Nottingham, and its my belief Gas Street was never intended for that much besides the local news and the continuity/playout - adding CITV onto it was effectively an afterthought.
I'm not so sure. Lenton Lane was never that busy and was in decline by the late 90s, accommodating it there surely wouldn't have been so difficult?
IIRC the Childrens operation had always been in Birmingham, even during the out-of-vision 90s era. Seems weird that a newly opened small studio would immediately be used for something it had not been intended to be used for.
Remember that prior to I think 1997, Central were at the old ATV Studios on Broad Street, but they'd been winding that down for a while. Presumably Lenton Lane was going to be their main production hub (what there was of it) what with having sunk a fortune in it... Gas Street was relatively late to the Midlands stable.
But yes, the CITV output (up until it moved to Manchester) had always come from Birmingham, even the Stonewall years 1989-1991 still came from Central's studios, and prior to 1987 (when the entire output went live), the links apparently came from Central, though they weren't live. Which was always fun when a programme didn't turn up and somebody was sitting there looking gormless...
Central News (West) and CITV in-vision continuity shared a single studio space at Gas Street for a period circa late-1990s/early-2000s. The respective sets were opposite each other. This was an era when the main 6pm CNW was generally the only one to use the main set, with short bulletins coming from a small CSO virtual set instead (wherever that was located).
CNW decamped to the Gas Street foyer for several weeks in the summer of 2005 whilst a dividing wall was built to turn it into two separate studios. It wasn't an equal 50:50 division of the space. CN West got the slightly smaller of the two studios afterwards, with CN East being moved from Nottingham to the larger of the two Brum studios. CITV continuity therefore became out-of-vision, and ultimately also moved to being done in Manchester/Salford.
Network programmes (e.g. Bullseye) had come from the Nottingham studio complex (Lenton Lane) ever since the Brum operation had downscaled from the big Broad Street complex to the Gas Street potting shed. By the time that the reboot-of-a-reboot of Crossroads was axed, it was the only remaining Central network studio production. The site was then sold to the University of Nottingham, and the CNE newsroom moved to an office facility on some far-flung Nottingham business park or similar.
Since the 2009 changes (with both sub-regions now sharing the same studio/set/presenters/crew, pre-recording and all), it is the former "East" studio in Brum being used. The smaller former "West" studio has since been used for non-television purposes by non-ITV tenants of the 22 Gas Street building.
Not about the cut-outs as much, but I've posted this in another "CITV at Gas Street" thread before and I thought I would post it here.
In 2003/04, CITV shared Central News's set, which means that (in a way) the studio was split in half.
That had actually been the case since I believe the 1998 relaunch, as they had to cobble together a set of some sorts to enable in-vision presentation.
I believe it started in 98' in another area but then moved opposite Central News in January 2000 with a big set with multiple areas. That lasted until Sept 03 when we had the white much more basic looking set which lasted about a year before going out of vision.
Considering the entire environment of where CITV was produced in that era no longer exists (the Gas Street building still does, but it is only used for Central News and also acts as the "Viewer Feedback" hub
Not about the cut-outs as much, but I've posted this in another "CITV at Gas Street" thread before and I thought I would post it here.
In 2003/04, CITV shared Central News's set, which means that (in a way) the studio was split in half.
This video shows what that set looked like with a glimpse of the CITV set, where you can see a picture of one of the characters from Rugrats if you look hard enough.
I still love the guys reaction when he spots the weatherboard
It was actually quite small, but as time went on it became bigger. I think it ultimately ended up as being one of the largest sets CITV had ever had in the history of its time on ITV, before it was all junked and went out of vision and ultimately up to Manchester.
They gave the viewers the feeling that the set was "bigger on the inside than it is on the outside" when really, it was actually small, but as you've said, it became one of the largest sets on its history.
That must be why a lot of people liked Gas Street so much.
Somebody posted the final live link from Birmingham for CITV on You Tube a while back. Its been a while but pretty sure they mentioned thats been in Birmingham for a few decades. Possibly may have mentioned Central. I would love to see that again if it ever resurfaces.
